Since 2006, Shen Yun ("the beauty of divine beings dancing") has been presenting programs designed to "revive 5,000 years of authentic Chinese culture" through music and dance. On Friday, the 2014 edition of Shen Yun began a brief run at the Merriam Theater, where it charmed and astonished, but ultimately left this viewer feeling profoundly uncomfortable. Large-scale "folkloric" extravaganzas like Shen Yun have a venerable history - think Riverdance, or Philadelphia's Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble.

At the gateway to the Please Touch Museum's new "Gateway to China" exhibit sits the front of a SEPTA bus, which has been part of the museum's regular collection for some time. Actually, just like Claus Oldenburg's famous "Clothespin," which is not really a clothespin, the Please Touch object merely evokes a bus. It isn't one. No matter. Kids adore it. They run inside, sit in the driver's seat, fiddle with the steering wheel and, best of all, honk the horn. Just past the bus, only a handful of the displays in "Gateway to China," a colorful representation of selected aspects of Chinese culture, seemed to elicit quite as much passionate play from the preschoolers visiting the museum yesterday, the opening day of the exhibit.

Technicolor dragon dancers swirl down decorated avenues. Diverse throngs of people enjoy succulent pot stickers and bowls of hot, sticky rice purchased from street carts. Excitement builds as the audience counts down to the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony. And the best part? You can experience this Olympic-like scene and fervor without buying an expensive plane ticket and traveling the 7,000 miles to Beijing. The Summer Games begin at 8:08:08, Beijing time, tonight, 8/08/08.

Graham Chapman, the M.D.-turned-Monty-Python-comic, is making another house call in this area tonight. His last visit a couple of weeks ago was mired in visa red tape and he couldn't give his "patients" at the Comedy Factory Outlet, 31 Bank St., the full benefit of his bedside manner plus his prescription for laughter. But he promises not to be late this time for his shows at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Tickets: $15. Info: FUNNY-11. MUSICAL NOTES The School of Music of the Philadelphia Colleges of the Arts presents The de Pasquale String Quartet, assisted by students, in an all-Mendelssohn program at the Shubert Theatre, 250 S. Broad, at 8 p.m. It's free.

After the amazing plays, after the controversy, after the mad stampedes onto the court by first one school's fans and then the other school's fans, and then the first school's fans again . . . There was Mark Peterson, all by his lonesome. His four fellow starters on Thomas Edison High's heaven-blessed basketball team were buzzing around the Civic Center floor, snatching down nets, mugging for TV cameras and jumping on - and being jumped on by - person after person after person.

Ann Boccuti says that when people look at her, a young Chinese woman, they assume she might not speak English. It happens even on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she's a 19-year-old sophomore. "I'm treated as an immigrant," she said in an interview. Boccuti, of Lansdale, spent the first 17 months of her life in a Nanchang orphanage before being adopted by a white couple and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. She is unique. And one among thousands.

This weekend, dozens of dancers in brilliant costumes will leap across the stage of the Merriam Theater, before digitally projected Chinese landscapes. An orchestra will perform original scores melding Western and Chinese instruments; the violin will befriend the two-string erhu. The production promises a renaissance of traditional Chinese culture, which Divine Performing Arts, the New York nonprofit organization that runs the show, says the Chinese Communist Party long has tried to erase from public consciousness.

Happy New Year! No, we're not confused. It's Chinese New Year. Celebrated on the first day of the first lunar month, Chinese New Year - 4701 by the traditional Chinese calendar - will fall on Thursday. The calendar designates an animal to represent each year, and this year is the Year of the Monkey. There are plenty of activities for kids to celebrate the holiday and learn about Chinese culture. Visit the Primate Reserve at the Philadelphia Zoo on Thursday, where chef Joseph Poon will demonstrate fruit and vegetable carving, and will talk about the holiday's history and customs.

Friday Notes of laughter A lineup of comedians will perform at 10:30 p.m. Friday through a collective coordinated by High Note Humor's Kevin Hurley and James Cristiano. This week's show features comedian Anton Shuford at the High Note Cafe, 1549 S. 13th St. - known for singing chef Franco Borda and an operatic staff. The group plans monthly First Friday shows at this venue. Tickets: $10. Information: 215-755-8903, www.facebook.com/highnotehumor . Friday Jazz at the Point The fourth annual Somers Point Jazz Society Benefit Concert & Silent Auction will celebrate a new year of great jazz Friday with one-hour sets at 8 and 9:30 p.m. Featured will be the George Mesterhazy Trio with special guest Barry Miles.

For centuries, puppetry has delighted children and adults worldwide. This weekend, parents and their pint-sized charges can watch a Far Eastern interpretation of the art when the Peking Puppet Theatre opens the Annenberg Center's Theatre for Children series. The Peking Puppet Theatre, which is on its first U.S. tour, has staged more than 10,000 shows since 1955 in the People's Republic of China, where puppet theater is a tradition. Working with highly manuverable rod puppets that range from two to five feet high, puppeteers below stage can create subtle moves in their puppets' bodies, legs, arms, fingers and heads, even the eyes.

Since 2006, Shen Yun ("the beauty of divine beings dancing") has been presenting programs designed to "revive 5,000 years of authentic Chinese culture" through music and dance. On Friday, the 2014 edition of Shen Yun began a brief run at the Merriam Theater, where it charmed and astonished, but ultimately left this viewer feeling profoundly uncomfortable. Large-scale "folkloric" extravaganzas like Shen Yun have a venerable history - think Riverdance, or Philadelphia's Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble.

NEW YORK - Monkey: Journey to the West , now settling in for nearly a month of hyperphysical, family-friendly performances at Lincoln Center, may signify the arrival of something more momentous than the show's buoyant, picaresque journey suggests: Chinese ticket buyers in the United States. "China is happening on a lot of levels, and it's happening in the arts world," says Nigel Redden, director of the Lincoln Center Festival. But not necessarily with the seriousness that usually characterizes a festival known to host ambitious endeavors by the Royal Shakespeare Company and modernist German operas that others don't touch.

Thirty-four years and what looked like a century ago, I traveled inside what was then known as Red China. With official United States recognition approaching, the People's Republic opened its doors. Having studied in Taiwan, I received a limited visa and missed the Great Wall and other sites. After teaching Chinese culture for 30 years, I returned in November. What we saw on my return was more contemporary than I anticipated, and being there was inspiring. Here were 12-lane highways intersecting modern, crowded cities; stores with merchandise aplenty; and a fashionably dressed, vibrant people.

Ann Boccuti says that when people look at her, a young Chinese woman, they assume she might not speak English. It happens even on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she's a 19-year-old sophomore. "I'm treated as an immigrant," she said in an interview. Boccuti, of Lansdale, spent the first 17 months of her life in a Nanchang orphanage before being adopted by a white couple and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. She is unique. And one among thousands.

Ai Weiwei has become China's most prominent international artist in large part because he is also his country's most persistent and popular dissident. Last year, his growing celebrity prompted the Chinese government to arrest him at Beijing's airport as he was about to depart on a foreign trip. He was detained in secrecy for three months, charged with "economic crimes. " Since being released in June 2011, Ai, whose work was exhibited at Arcadia University in 2010, has been prohibited from leaving China.

Tears streamed down my face as the bus carrying our family and a dozen other Americans, all adopting parents, pulled out of Nanchang, the capital of southern China's Jiangxi Province, on a cold and rainy morning in January 1995. The 6-month-old baby girl I held in my arms had rosy red cheeks and inquisitive eyes. She had been abandoned when she was days old, left outside an orphanage in Yingtan City, about 100 miles to the southeast. Pinned to her clothing was a note written in crude Mandarin on red paper, a sign of good luck in China.

Friday Notes of laughter A lineup of comedians will perform at 10:30 p.m. Friday through a collective coordinated by High Note Humor's Kevin Hurley and James Cristiano. This week's show features comedian Anton Shuford at the High Note Cafe, 1549 S. 13th St. - known for singing chef Franco Borda and an operatic staff. The group plans monthly First Friday shows at this venue. Tickets: $10. Information: 215-755-8903, www.facebook.com/highnotehumor . Friday Jazz at the Point The fourth annual Somers Point Jazz Society Benefit Concert & Silent Auction will celebrate a new year of great jazz Friday with one-hour sets at 8 and 9:30 p.m. Featured will be the George Mesterhazy Trio with special guest Barry Miles.

Back in the late 1990s, forward-thinking educators at the Hill School in Pottstown added Chinese to the language offerings. Recently, the private high school's model program became one of 60 nationwide designated "Confucius Classrooms" by the Asia Society and by the People's Republic of China's Office of Chinese Language Council International, known as Hanban. Confucius Classrooms are designed to promote cultural exchanges and help meet the growing demand for people fluent in the world's most-spoken language.

This weekend, dozens of dancers in brilliant costumes will leap across the stage of the Merriam Theater, before digitally projected Chinese landscapes. An orchestra will perform original scores melding Western and Chinese instruments; the violin will befriend the two-string erhu. The production promises a renaissance of traditional Chinese culture, which Divine Performing Arts, the New York nonprofit organization that runs the show, says the Chinese Communist Party long has tried to erase from public consciousness.

Technicolor dragon dancers swirl down decorated avenues. Diverse throngs of people enjoy succulent pot stickers and bowls of hot, sticky rice purchased from street carts. Excitement builds as the audience counts down to the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony. And the best part? You can experience this Olympic-like scene and fervor without buying an expensive plane ticket and traveling the 7,000 miles to Beijing. The Summer Games begin at 8:08:08, Beijing time, tonight, 8/08/08.